David and I headed back to Sheets Draw in southern Capital Reef National Park for try number two to find Sheets Draw Arch. We parked at the east end of several canyons that run to the west. We are hoping one of these unnamed canyons will let us access Sheets Draw where we hope to find Sheets Draw Arch. This is our second attempt to hike up one of these canyons.
We ended up walking a long ways up and around the head the canyon. We did finally get to look into Sheets Draw proper but couldn’t see any arches. I thought I could see a shadow of an arch but after twenty minutes of climbing through rocks and brush it turned out to just be a shadow. At least we knew where the arch was not to be found.
Along the way we find a rock pool teeming with very large fairy shrimp though we see almost no animal signs in this area.
We took a different wash to get back to the Explorer. Instead of dropping out near the vehicle, it topped out above another canyon. After some tricky climbing, we managed to reach the bottom of this canyon and then walk down the wash to the vehicle. We were exhausted. It turned out that we had hiked six miles in rough country when it really was too hot to hike.
In the end, it was another nice (though hot) day to hike and enjoy the surroundings, away from people, computers, responsibilities and the general confusion of every day life. Hiking southern Utah is escapism for me. It recharges me and gives me a different perspective of “that other life” I live.